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Doggic
'''Doggic''' Doggic is a language spoken by dogs all around the world. As such, all sounds are pronouncable by dogs (or are the closest human equivalent). The phonology consists of 14 distinct consonantal sounds (with 2 allophonic variants) and 7 vowels. Vowels are distinguished by length, with there being three different types of length (normal, brief, and long). Classification and Dialects Doggic is not a human language, and, as such, has sounds that are difficult for humans to recreate perfectly. Below is the best attempt at mapping Doggic's phonology onto a human-pronouncable IPA chart. Doggic varies greatly betweeen continents and even between nearby regions. Common variations include: Human languages that dogs have picked up on (but cannot speak), basic commands that vary throughout human languages, and names of people, other dogs, or themselves that they hear frequently. Phonology Consonants In Doggic, there are 14 distinct consonantal sounds with 2 allophonic variations (''c'' and ''ds''). There is also the semi-allophonic ''q'' which is so similar to ''k ''that many consider it no more than a mere allophone despite it distinguishing several words (i.e. ''dsik' ''and ''dsiq'''), this fact may help explain why in the orthographic transcription ''k'' and ''q ''are distinguished. Furthermore, more intensive research surrounding the unusual allophonic phoneme has suggested that the main the difference between that of ''k ''and ''q ''is actually the pharyngealisation of the consonant, and not, in fact, the place of articulation. In the explanation below, we have opted to use /q/ instead of the newly-suggested /kˤ/ for simplicity and also for the fact that this suggested by only one lone study and needs further research for us to use it. Vowels There are 7 distinct vowel sounds in Doggic. These are distinguished by place of articulation, height of articulation, roundedness and length*. Roundedness is only distinguishing between /u/ and /ɯ/. *Two vowels do not have a length distinction ie. ''i ''and ''e''. Phonotactics Allophone Rules * t becomes c before k (eg. atk >> a'''''c'''''k) * k becomes c before t (eg. akt >> a'''''c'''''t) * k becomes c before ' (eg. ak' >> a'''''c'''''') * tc becomes ds around voiced sounds (eg. tcav >> '''''ds'''''av) * tc becomes ds before ' (eg. atc' >> a'''''ds'''''') * ds returns to tc after ' if by voiced sounds (eg. 'dsav >> ''''''tc'''''av) Syllable Structure There are three valid syllable structures in Doggic. These are: * (C)(C)V(C)(C)ʔ * ʔ(C)(C)V(C)(C) * CVC C = Any consonant*. V = Any Vowel. ( ) = Optional. ʔ = Glottal stop *This does not include the glottal stop (ʔ) Writing System (Romanization) Grammar -- TBA -- Nouns Doggic has 16 different declensions for nouns based on four axes: * Grammatical gender (here used to indicate species/caninity): Canine/Neuter * Role in sentence: Ergative/Absolutive * Number: Singular/Plural * Case: Infinitive/Genitive Featured above is a chart depicting all 16 declensions for the word '''tcav''. The additional vowel for genitive marking is the main vowel of the noun. In this example it is the vowel ''a'', but, in the word ''wvek''', it gets marked for genitive like ''wvek'e''. Verbs Doggic has 20 different declensions for verbs based on five axes: * Source (here used to distinguish sensory/observed information from second-hand information): Sensory/Reported * Tense: Past/Present/Future * Sensory*: General/Sensed * Reported**: General/Known * Aspect: Perfective/Imperfective*** *The General/Sensed distinction is mainly between the implicit method of detection as opposed to general detection. (e.g. The implicit detection method in 'ak (meaning "to bark") is auditory, so the distinction would be "I heard someone bark/ I sensed someone bark". **The General/Known distinction is mainly between second-hand information and general knowledge/ passed down tradition. (e.g. "I was told it will rain/ It is known that it will rain". ***The Present tense does not have the imperfective aspect. Syntax Lexicon Example text